On Ending Wars and New Beginnings
by bostonbaby
Summary: The war is over, and Draco has done something that will forever change the way Hermione looks at him.
1. Chapter 1

Draco groaned loudly while rubbing his head, slowly he opened his eyes to find himself in a foreign room. Leaning up slightly on his elbows he saw the walls were covered in wallpaper that suggested it had once belonged to a wealthy owner but was now poorly taken care of. Across the room there was another bed that looked like it hadn't been slept in but the room did appear to have girl's clothes strewn about. Now he was even more confused. A shooting pain ran up his leg as he tried to get up, he yelled out in surprise.

"Are you okay?"

Draco looked up to find Hermione Granger coming towards the bed, "fine"

"Here, lay down" she put her hand on his shoulder lightly and used the other to carefully push his leg back to the safety of the bed. Draco was a bit put off by the casual touches. "You got a pretty nasty cut on your leg" She sat down on a chair next to the bed.

"What's going on" He rubbed his head again, the last thing he remembered was being in the midst of the battle

"We're at grimmauld place. Snape brought you here last night"

"Potter's place?" Hermione nodded in response "Great. So where's my god father now"

"No idea. He left after he put you down on my bed"

Draco shifted slightly, "this is your bed?"

Hermione bit on her lip lightly, "yes"

"I don't want to be a burden"

"After what you did..."

Her voice was soft, it forced Draco to look up and meet her honey eyes "don't mention it" he gave her a slight smile

Hermione leaned her head against the wall behind her, "sorry I'm still quite tired"

"You should rest too"

She was a little put off at the sincerity of his words, "would you mind if I took a quick nap in Ginny's Bed? If I try sleeping on the couch someone is bound to wake me"

"As long as you don't snore"

Hermione laughed lightly, "I'll try not to"

Draco watched as she pulled herself out of the chair and walked to the other side of the room only to fall on the bed heavily and close her eyes. It didn't take long for Draco to see she had fallen asleep. Her mouth was open slightly as she breathed evenly causing her chest to rise and fall. From this angle she looked rather cute. Draco furrowed his brows at this thought but it was true. Even though she did look exhausted she still had a golden glow about her. The mass of curls fell over her shoulders and spilled onto her chest. A dainty hand rested against her stomach as the other served as a pillow for her face. Her face. All those years he had thought she was indecent, now he realized she was closer to a goddess. He forced himself to look away before thoughts of her plump lips drove him insane.

Hermione did not arise from her slumber until the next morning. She slowly let her eyes adjust to the light that was pouring into the room. Her eyes immediately fell on the empty bed across the room, she panicked and jumped out of the bed.

"Malfoy?!"

The bathroom door opened, Draco popped his head out "what?"

Her heart was still pounding in her chest "what are you doing out of bed?"

"Showering..." he opened the door more to show that he had a towel wrapped around his waist "...Obviously"

Hermione's eyes quickly ran over his body and felt a blush rush to her cheeks "sorry" she turned around quickly

"No need to be embarrassed I am covered up" he was obviously amused

"You don't have a shirt on" she explained

"I didn't know you were that prude Granger" he laughed now

Hermione whipped around, walked quickly towards him and slapped his bare chest "I'm not prude"

Draco looked mortified as he rubbed his chest that now had a red hand mark on it "I was kidding jeez"

"Put some clothes on and get in bed" she looked down his body "I'll probably have to change your bandages now"

Draco felt his body tingle in anticipation of the contact, "you should shower, and I'll change"

Hermione nodded and went into the bathroom. Draco quickly went to his bed where a fresh pair of pajamas awaited him. His leg was aching now from all the movement, obviously Hermione was right about the resting thing. But he wasn't going to tell her that. When she came out of the shower, Hermione ignored Draco and went straight to her dresser and pulled out some clothes then quickly went back into the bathroom. He barely got to admire her bare legs peeking out from under the towel that covered her body.

"Okay take your pants off"

"Excuse me?" Draco was caught off guard

"I have to change your bandages" she held out the medical supplies in her hand

He started to reach for the bottom of the pants "can't I just roll up my pajamas?"

Hermione shook her head, "not when the wound is on your thigh. Don't tell me you're getting shy now" Draco narrowed his eyes and pulled off his pants. "Thank you" she looked down and tried to hold back a blush "Did you take off your old ones?"

"Well you did say you were going to change them" he shrugged

"You're not a very good patient Malfoy" Hermione began to clean up the wound that was irritated from his activity. She looked up as she bandaged him and saw his eyes closed. "Are you okay?"

"Mhm" he opened them and met her gaze while giving a lazy smile "I like your touches"

"Oh" Hermione looked down not sure how else to respond

Draco realized what he had said and quickly changed the subject, "I'm starving"

"What would you like?" Hermione started to head towards the door. Draco got the feeling she couldn't wait to leave.

Draco was pulling his pants back on "I don't really care as long as it's warm"

The stairs squeaked angrily as Hermione ran down them without care. From the living room Ginny and Harry watched as she quickly made her way to the kitchen. Ginny looked from the hall to her boyfriend for some type of explanation. Harry could only shrug.

"I'm going to go see if she's alright" Ginny managed to pull herself away from Harry although he grumbled with annoyance. Her steps were quick but light, peering around the doorway she found Hermione bracing herself against the counter. "You okay?" she continued on into the room as she spoke

Hermione looked at her friend and smiled, "yea I just had to see Malfoy with his pants off again"

Ginny giggled, "Moving along that quick huh?"

Hermione's eyes widened slightly "what's that supposed to mean"

"Just saying, he's not that hard to look at and he did save you" Ginny hopped onto the counter and watched as Hermione pulled flour from the cabinets to make pancakes.

She eyed her friend "that doesn't change the fact that we hate each other"

Ginny tapped her cheek in mock thought "and yet here you are cooking for him all because he took a curse for you"

"He hasn't been all that unpleasant" Hermione stirred her batter slowly, Ginny raised a brow in response "don't give me that Gin and don't say anything to Harry he doesn't even want Malfoy here"

"Of course not" she hopped off the counter and walked down the hall with a smile on her face

Draco eyed the pile of pancakes in front of him; he hadn't expected her to go that far. "Honestly Granger I was expecting a bagel"

She looked over at him from where she sat on the bed "Would you rather have that?"

"No, I just meant..." he shrugged "thanks"

Hermione smiled softly, "you're welcome"

He had that tingly feeling in his body again when she smiled, he mentally slapped himself for letting her get to him so much. His gaze fell back to the pancakes as he began to eat it greedily. Hermione began to stand up, Draco stopped eating for a moment "where are you off to?"

She looked a bit startled "I was going to go downstairs"

"Oh" he put his fork down "I thought you might keep me company today"

"I didn't think you would want me to" Hermione sat back down

"You are making me stay in bed, the least you could do is play a game of cards with me" he smiled boyishly

Hermione laughed lightly, "I'll go find a deck, and you finish up"

By the time Hermione returned Draco was leaning back in her bed with his eyes closed. She took a moment to admire his fine aristocratic features, the platinum locks that fell around his face softened them.

"Was the breakfast good?"

He opened a single eye, "Great, I didn't know you cooked"

She shrugged, "pancakes are easy"

"Well it was good either way" Draco straightened up as she sat on the end of the bed. "Did you get the cards?"

"Yea" she started to shuffle the cards in her hand. They played in silence for a few minutes, till Hermione couldn't bear the silence anymore. "You never really had friends at school did you?" Hermione picked up another card and looked at her deck thoughtfully

Draco picked up another card as well "I had plenty of friends"

"People that worshipped you like crabbe and goyle did don't count as friends Malfoy"

Draco laughed lightly, "Well by those qualifications then I supposed I didn't have any real friends" Draco looked up at her now "Mostly people just liked that I had a lot of money"

Feeling his eyes on her she looked up as well "I'm sure you have plenty of good qualities though"

"Like my dashing good looks?" he smirked

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I meant your personality, I've been spending time with you and I'm not completely miserable. And it's not because of money or looks"

Draco raised a single brow "are you sure it's not my good looks?"

"Quite sure" Hermione looked back down at her deck and grinned. Draco was smiling too. He couldn't remember the last time he had smile so much. What was he going to do when he got better and Hermione ditched him? He had to push the thought out of his head. "Are you okay? You look sad"

Draco shook his head as if to physically clear his mind, "I'm fine" By the look in her eye he could tell that she didn't believe him. Without thinking he reached out and ran his knuckles over her cheek to offer some comfort. It mainly aroused a blush to that pretty face of hers, Draco chuckled.

"Don't make fun of me" the skin on her cheeks turned darker before she could cover them up with her hands so he couldn't tell

Draco's voice was barely above a whisper "I wasn't laughing at you, its endearing to know a simple touch can cause such an effect over you"

Hermione let her hands fall away from her face but her eyes couldn't leave his, she was captivated by his grey eyes that she wanted to believe were glowing for her. Draco too was caught up in the moment, he slowly leaned forward and began to feel his heart beating heavily in his chest. Not only was Hermione not pulling away but she was actually leaning in, anticipating a kiss.

There was a loud knock on the door, they both nearly jumped out of their skins.

Draco was at least pleased to see Hermione looked disappointed by the interruption.

"Hermione?" Ginny entered "can I bother you to help me make lunch"

She stood from the bed and smoothed out her jeans "sure" Her eyes moved back to Draco "I'll bring some up to you when it's done" and with that she was out the door, leaving Draco to his thoughts once more.

Ever since the start of the war he hadn't known what the future held for him, even now he didn't know what the next day had in store for him. Not even the next few moments. Draco didn't know what was going to happen in the rest of his life. All he knew was that he wanted Hermione to be part of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Ron watched Hermione nervously from across the living room. Her eyes darted across the pages of the well worn book in her dainty hands. He couldn't even make out the name of the book on the spine it was so old. If there was one thing he knew about Hermione it was her love of old novels, she had probably read the one in her hands a million times before. He sighed audibly causing Hermione to pause suddenly a look up at him. He smiled crookedly.

Hermione shut her book loudly, "can I help you with something?" she was clearly annoyed, and being interrupted in the middle of a book was not the way to get on Hermione's good side

"No, No. I'm good" Ron smiled again, Hermione shook her head and peered back at her book. "Well I did want to talk to you about something..."

She closed her book again and gave him another look of annoyance "what would you like to speak to me about?"

Ron cleared his throat awkwardly "its about Malfoy you see"

"What about him?" Hermione tucked her fist under her chin in faux interest.

"You've been spending a lot of time with him lately"

Hermione couldn't believe he was brining that up, "He's injured!"

Ron didn't look convinced "so he says"

"Ronald you can clearly see the injury" she was dumbfounded

"I still don't like how close he's getting to you"

Hermione stood from her chair and began to walk out of the room "I'm not having this conversation anymore"

She needed to get out of this crowed house, Ron and Harry were her best friends but she had spent long enough by their side. A caged bird, that's what she felt like. The stairs creaked as she walked up the stairs, the room she shared with Malfoy seemed to be her only sanctuary in this place. When she opened the door, the room was empty. The covers on her bed, which Malfoy had taken over, were strewn about as if they had been thrown off his body without care. Her eyes scanned over the room quickly, nothing had changed since she left this morning. The curtains to the single window in the room were billowing strongly in the wind. Slowly, she walked toward the open window and stuck her head out to find Malfoy sitting on the small ledge.

"Do you have a death wish?"

He turned his head halfway, not fully looking at her "not particularly"

"This house is really old, that wood could give out at any moment"

"I'm a lightweight; don't worry your pretty little head about it" Hermione rolled her eyes, even though he wasn't looking at her. "It's a nice view from out here"

"I can see fine from here"

Draco shrugged "suit yourself"

Hermione sighed and climbed out the window. She had after all done far more dangerous things with Harry and Ron. The ledge was smaller than she expected, so she found herself closer to him then she was used to. The sight was beautiful though, all the London houses made a very scenic view.

"I should be leaving soon"

"You can stay as long as you want" Hermione looked at him even though he wasn't facing her. As he looked off into the distance she admired his profile.

"I need to move on with life already" his voice sounded so tender it calmed her previously frazzled nerves

"What are your plans?"

Now he looked over at her, another wind blew causing her curls to move about her face. He smiled remembering how he once hated hair, now he wanted nothing more than to run his fingers through it. "I suppose I'll find a flat first, sell the old manor, and figure out what I want to do for a career. Honestly I thought the war would either kill me or I'd end up in Azkaban"

Hermione nodded, "I know what you mean, and the war consumed so much of my childhood I'm not sure what to do from here. I do need to get out of here soon"

Draco raised his brow, "I never thought I'd hear you say you want to leave those two"

She laughed softly, "Like you said life needs to move on"

"Come on, let's head inside" Draco stood and held out his hand to her, she eyed it carefully before slipping her hand in his. As he pulled her up she was surprised at how soft the skin on his hands was. Both standing, they were so much closer. His masculine scent filled her nostrils, she had to stop herself from leaning into it. Draco was smiling down at her as if he knew her secret, she blushed and quickly climbed back through the window.

The leaky cauldron was full of sociable witches and wizards who's voices over powered the small tavern. Hermione admired the scene from her seat in the corner, across the table from her Draco too was looking around the crowd.

"I forgot how lively this place could be" he noted

Hermione nodded, wondering how he had convinced her to let him take her here "it's quite the place"

"Lucius never let me come here when I was a child" he looked at her now, his voice somber

"Why?" she was surprised

Draco shrugged and leaned back in his seat, "he said it wasn't good enough for our kind. We went to private bars for drinks"

"I see" she diverted her eyes and smiled at the waiter walking towards them with their food. Draco eyed the waiter carefully as he set their meals down on the table, Hermione thanked him with a wide smile before looking back at him to see the sour look on his face. "What?"

"He seemed friendly" it was easy to trace the bitterness in his voice

"Malfoy don't start that protective crap with me I get it enough from Ron and Harry"

Draco leaned forward "oh yea?"

"Ron seems to think you have a motive to romance me or something silly like that"

After taking a sip of his butter beer he responded, "I wonder where he could have gotten that idea"

Hermione shrugged and started to eat her soup. Draco looked across the bar again and saw the waiter gazing at their table. He gave the man a stern look to let him know he wasn't allowed near Hermione. None of this was noticed by Hermione who was happy to have warm food in her stomach in an environment other than grimmauld place. Looking around again Draco saw the waiter wasn't the only one who had noticed the Gryffindor princes. He could tell by the look in each mans eyes they were carefully observing the interactions between himself and Hermione.

"Granger?" He put his hand on hers, she looked down at it then at him questioningly "this is it for me, I'm leaving tonight"

"Where are you going?"

"I've made some arrangements for the time being"

Hermione didn't like how vague he was being, "I suppose that's all you're going to tell me"

Draco shrugged, "it's not really important"

Her heart sank in her chest, didn't he understand that he was a part of her life now. Malfoy was stubborn, she knew that. If he had made a plan then that was what he was going to stick with. It didn't matter what she wanted, or how this was going to affect her. He wasn't even looking at her anymore, his eyes were scanning the crowd. Maybe he did feel guilty, his hand was still touching hers. His ivory complexion seemed to glow like the moon, against her golden skin this was even more apparent.

Looking back up she met his cool gaze. It was so hard to read his expressions, so unlike Ron or Harry. No, Draco was always more of a mystery, perhaps that was why she felt so drawn to him now. Years of torment and here she was sitting in a pub with him. Hermione had never hated him though, he had hurt her often as a child. She had wanted him to be nice to her, like he was now.

"Why were you so mean to me?"

This question caught him off guard, she could see it in his face. "I thought I was being rather civil"

She shook her head, "in school"

"I had to be" she looked at him in surprise, it was that simple for him. He sighed softly, "when I was a young I was just as influential as any other child, even you. Whatever my parents told me was the truth I accepted without thought. Even when they said we were better than everyone else because our blood was…pure" he looked away for a moment as if to compose himself "I won't apologize for believing in my parents, even though now I know how wrong it is." His hand moved from hers to brush across her cheek, "I don't care where you came from Hermione, I'll be the first to admit you're a better person than I am"

"You said my name" she had wide eyes

Draco leaned back and chuckled "I suppose I did" Hermione was still looking at him, "you haven't touched your food yet"

Her features seemed to soften "neither have you"

Draco nodded and purposely took a bite out of the sandwich he had ordered. Hermione seemed pleased and delved into her soup as well. Although he was eating his mind began to wonder about the lady in front of her. Being around her made him feel so alive, even now the awareness of her made his skin tingle with delight. The way she looked at him, he couldn't help but hope that she felt the same way. But then again how did he know she didn't give Ron or Harry the same glances. He instantly felt his mood darken at the thought.

"Can I ask you something sort of personal?" he asked carefully

Hermione blotted her mouth with a napkin, "I suppose"

"Did you ever date Ron or Harry"

"No" her head shook lightly as she spoke "why do you ask?"

Draco shrugged trying to look casual, "Just curious, there were always rumors while we were in school"

"oh," her eyes drifted down for a moment "I've never really had time for romance, not that anyone's ever really been interested"

Draco was shocked at how self conscious she sounded, "I doubt that's true"

"It doesn't matter now, I did what I had to do and now we can all move on" She took another sip of her soup as if to signify she didn't want to talk about the subject anymore

"Would you have dated a Slytherin?" he gave her a look of complete seriousness

Hermione chewed on her lip for a moment, "I never judged people by what house they were sorted into"

He leaned forward of his elbows, "so you would?"

"I don't see why it matters , we're not in school anymore" she started to toy with one of her curls

He realized she was uncomfortable, "I didn't mean to bother you I was just wondering"

Suddenly her eyes darted to his, "well would you have dated a Gryffindor?"

Draco smirked "I did, once"

She raised a brow in surprise, "Really? Who?"

"What kind of gentlemen would I be if I were to kiss and tell"

Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed her soup away "Having a physical relationship with someone does not count as dating"

"Even you just described it as a type of relationship" he smirked proudly

"You know what I mean" her arms crossed over her chest and turned her gaze to the crowd

Now he was confused, "Have I upset you?"

"I don't understand how you can have a total disregard for peoples feelings," she looked back at him "I mean, aren't you ever lonely? None of your friends were ever close, you never got close so any of the girls you had trysts with"

Draco narrowed his eyes slightly, "I was often lonely, but you know just as well as I do it's dangerous to get close to people during a war."

"Sorry"

"It's fine, you didn't mean anything" he glanced down at his watch "We should get going, I made plans to meet a friend" Hermione gave him a weary glance but did not question him.

The click of her heels resounded through the halls as she quickly walked back to her office. Her fingers were shuffling through the stack of papers in her arms. Her secretary almost didn't catch her as she walked by,

"Ms. Granger!"

Hermione turned on her heels, "Yes Emily?"

"You have a Mr. Malfoy waiting for you in his office" Emily had a worried look on her face as if she was going to get in trouble for letting him in

Hermione shifted her wait to one hip and sighed, "its okay, I know he's hard to handle" She straightened out her skirt before continuing on to her office. Draco was sitting at her desk looking at pictures she had displayed on her desk. "I'm surprised to see you here" she closed the door behind her and placed her papers down on her desk.

Draco looked up and smirked, "I hope that's a good surprised"

She gave him a sideways smile "that depends on what you're here for"

"I saw that you got a new job in the paper, though id swing by" he put down the picture frame

"Oh how lovely of you to do so without dropping me an owl" she raised her brow

"I suppose you're upset you haven't heard from me till now" he stood and walked around the desk to bring himself closer

"I thought you forgot about me" she had to look down to hide the blush that rose to her cheeks from the admission

Draco smiled at her modesty, "I don't think that's possible" his thumb ran over her cheek lightly

"Then why did you disappear on me?" Hermione was surprised at the softness of her voice, she hadn't expected to act like this around him

"I wanted to sort out my affairs, you deserve all of my attention" Draco looked at her hopefully, he realized this was the sort of conversation that a couple would have. He could feel his heart beating heavily in his chest, was hers doing the same?

Hermione began to nervously play with her hair "I guess that's okay, it would have been nice to know that though"

Draco took her free hand in hers, "it won't happen again Hermione, let me take you out to dinner to make up for it"

"I can't tonight, there's a budget meeting I have to stay late for" she momentarily bit on her bottom lip "how about lunch tomorrow"

Draco tried not to frown, lunch was much less like a date and far more like a meeting between friends "I suppose that's better than nothing" He dropped her hand to look at his watch "I should get going anyways"

Hermione furrowed her brows slightly at his sudden change in mood but nodded, "okay I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Send me an owl once you've picked out the place" he said as he walked out her door

Leaning on her doorway , she watched him walk down the hall purposefully then shook her head in confusion.

Draco stared down at the paper work on his desk and looked away for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. Leaning back with his feet on the desk he tossed a ball an caught it in his hands, repeating the process over and over to keep his mind busy and off of Hermione. A loud knock on the door startled him, causing him to drop the ball. Draco looked at the small ball in annoyance for a moment before calling out, "come in"

"I see you're hard at work"

"Of course I am Zabini" Draco smirked at his coworker

"Thought I would give you a head's up that the boss is on his way down to talk to you about the Gala"

Draco sighed, "I swear he's never satisfied" as if on cue there was another knock on the door

"Ah, Here you are Malfoy" His large boss managed to squeeze pass his coworker in order to sit in one of the plush chairs opposite to Draco's desk "what have you been doing moping around in your office all day?"

"I've hardy been moping, Miller" he tired to hide his disdain

He shrugged, "has your love life got you a weary?"

Draco chuckled, "incase you haven't notice I've got no problem with the ladies"

The older man looked at him knowingly, "I'm not talking about your sex life here Malfoy, I'm referring to your heart"

"I assure you my heart is just fine" Draco leaned back in his chair to eye his boss carefully. There was a quiet moment before another knock filled the room. "Yes?"

Draco's secretary opened the door slightly, "There's a Miss Granger here to see you"

He looked at the men in the room, who were curiously looking back at him "Can you ask her to wait?" he was sure his voice had a hint of anxiety in it

"No, don't let us bother you. Send the young woman in Susie" Miller spoke firmly to the secretary, who looked from the older man to Draco. He had no choice but to nod in agreement. Miller and Smith only looked at each other and back at Draco as they waited for Susie to bring Hermione in. Draco had a bad feeling about this, but as soon as she entered the room familiar butterflies filled his stomach.

Hermione had the same outfit she had worn to work that day, a black pencil skirt that hugged her curves, a white three quarter sleeve shirt, and black pumps to complete the look. Even with such a corporate outfit on a glow was still about her. Even though she hadn't expected to see the other men in the office she smiled brightly at all of them. Draco smiled back at her, and got up from his seat to greet her. He swiftly got to her side and pressed a light kiss to her cheek, Hermione didn't even move away from the unusual contact.

"Hermione , This is my coworker Zabini" he introduced the young man in his office as she held out her hand to shake his "and his is my boss Miller"

"It's nice to meet you" she shook the bigger mans hand as well

"Pleasures all mine, but please call me John. Last names are mostly between the men here"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Hermione turned to Draco now "I thought we had a date tonight"

Draco grinned widely at her, "of course love, I was just finishing up here"

"I certainly hope Malfoy is bringing you to our Gala this weekend"

"Maybe if he's lucky" Hermione gave him a sly smile

Miller laughed, "With you, he would be a lucky man"

"Alright, you're all wounding my ego. Can you wait for me while we finish our talk?" Draco tucked a curl behind Hermione's hair as he spoke to her

"Just don't keep me waiting" she joked playfully, "it was nice you meet you guys" she waved to the men as she walked out

Draco was still smiling when he looked back at the men, "what?"

"I guess you're love life is doing just fine"

The small restaurant Hermione led Draco to was brightly lit and filled with people, definitely not the place Draco would have chosen for their first date. Hermione was looking over the menu with great interest, Draco felt a smile tugging at his lips. He began to wonder if she was just considering this a friendly gathering.

"So what changed your mind about dinner?" Draco inquired

Hermione simply shrugged "my boss canceled the meeting" she looked up "are you even going to look at your menu?"

He laughed lightly "Well what are you getting?"

"I think just a bowl of ravioli" she neatly folded the menu and put it at the edge of the table

"Sounds good to me" he put his menu on the edge as well, it was only a few minutes before a waitress came and took their order. "Why don't you tell me a little more about what you've been up to"

"It's not a very interesting story, a found an apartment and a new job. I haven't had much of a personal life lately. Harry and Ron are working at the ministry now, between that and their love lives I haven't seen much of them" Hermione bit on her lip lightly, she was afraid she sounded rather pathetic

Draco merely shrugged, "it happens sometimes, I'm sure it won't last long though. You three have always been inseparable"

"I don't like feeling like the third wheel though when they're all being all…lovely dovey"

He had to laugh at that "I'm sorry"

"Don't laugh at me!" she giggled as well "at least when you were around I had someone to spend time with when they were off as couples"

"Perhaps you should keep me around more often then" a smirk reached his lips

"The last thing I need is another male best friend"

Draco leaned back in his chair, she still wasn't getting it. "And here you are"

She could feel her cheeks starting to heat up, "I told you I like having you around Draco" her voice was very soft

"I like having you around too" Before Draco could push the subject any further, their food arrived. After a few bites Hermione spoke up

"So what have you been up to?"

"About the same as you, work and setting up the new place I'm at"

Hermione looked down at her food, "not seeing anyone then?"

Draco was surprised she asked this, "I'm seeing you right now" she raised a brow "well you called it a date in my office"

"I suppose I did" a smile reached her lips

"And our second date will be tomorrow when we go shopping for your dress" Draco said decisively before biting into a ravioli

"My dress?"

"You told my boss you were coming to the gala, and you can't back out now I'm already looking forward to it"

"Well if I must I suppose I can accompany you"

Draco smiled at her brightly, "oh you must"


End file.
